Just Good Business
The buzzing seemed to be coming from every direction, every few seconds another pulse of hissing and synthetic light flickering would be overlaid with the buzzing before setting back down into the constant hum of background noise with that damned buzzing filling the air once more. The rest of the compound wasn’t much better with the cacophony of waste water drumming down onto every surface as the ancient sluices cycled once more, each drop of water bouncing off of another metal surface adding its own tone to the barrage of noise that seemed to come from every direction, it was if the air itself was trying to deafen all those caught in the maelstrom it had concocted as those poor souls attempted to find a moments silence. At least that was how he felt sat here, perched on a knackered chair on guard duty in the small scrap guard house at the gate to the compound. “Four more hours” he chuntered to himself “Four more hours of electric buzzing, and mind numbing boredom” He let out a annoyed sigh as he got up and stretched his arms, tilting his head to avoid knocking the flicker light bulb that hung down from the ceiling. Guard duty was an easy work shift and routine as anything for security department personnel, he wouldn’t complain about an easy day; at least not in ear shot of his manager Desk Sergeant Cruz, but stuck in a tiny scrap shack watching for anything in near zero visibility with the electric systems fritzing out every so often was just boredom incarnate Felix thought as he glanced out through the rusted mesh into the surrounding sodden gloom. Nothing had moved all shift out there and he doubted anything would before he got to go back to his small cot and get some sleep, sitting back down he popped his feet up onto the over turned crate he’d been using as a table and foot rest. Leaning over he picked up his carbine and the small rag he kept with it, beginning to polish the ejection port as he hummed too himself, one thing he was glad of was not being out on patrol like the rest of his shift team who he knew would right know be slap bang right in the middle of the waste deluge and accordingly be socked through. Dry but bored suited him very fine indeed he grinned as he worked on a stubborn bit of carbon marking that refused to shift, the one thing that did bother him thought was how few staff seemed to be left in the compound itself these days. He knew from his briefings that the company has reclaimed this territory several seasons ago and the initial reclamation compound that had been established had been fine for a while, but then slowly at first but more rapidly in the last few weeks personnel had been recalled until only a skeleton crew were left manning the place with a couple of security details to act as protection for the almost silent compound. Add to that the fact that rations had started getting cut down a couple of season back, and then the rumours coming out of the spire and commerica seeing them drop even further Felix had a sneaking suspicion that a ’phase of withdrawn reappraisal’ was going to happen as the manager types called it. What that meant for everyone else was that something somewhere had fallen apart and they would likely as not being either reduced to even less staff here or even entirely withdrawn with a long range patrol of some sort left to look after the compound. What that mean for Felix was likely more boring guard shifts in the long term or at least getting redeployed back to the spire where he had at least the option of a hot shower he grumbled as he popped his carbine back down in its almost habitual resting spot. Shifting himself slight in his chair he thought about who exactly was left and what way he could increase his odds of getting redeployed better for him in the long run, there was the maintenance department staffer who still owed him one from that last card game he pondered as he lent back. There was a slight creak for a moment as the shack door opened at the same time the chairs back legs finally gave out and snapped, crashing Felix to the floor in a mixed shout and cry of surprise as Desk sergeant Cruz stood looking at her subordinate as he lay sprawled on his back groaning. “How many times do I tell you not to lean like that on company property Security Technician Felix?” She raised an eyebrow not unlike a mother with an infuriating child. “Sorry Boss” Felix got out as he hefted himself up, picking splinters out of his clothing as he got up and brushed himself down, “Of course you are” Cruz rolled her eyes as Felix stood to attention before Cruz waved down “Silent I take it from your relaxed attitude” Cruz nodded in the direction of the gloom outside the compound, “Nothing since I came on shift, bar the waste sluicing and the buzzing” He replied, pointing a the light bulb as it flickered. Cruz shook her head “Maybe check your radio then Technician” She picked it up and turned the volume dial back up, static and back chatter squawking from the ancient speaker. “Ah” Felix twitched as he grimaced slightly “If you had you’d know the rest of the detail is heading back with some trespassers in tow” Cruz snapped at Felix. “Trespassers, from who?” He asked as the possibilities ran through his mind, “The descended nomads to the west” Cruz answered him flippantly, “Alpha detail ran into a band of scouts that were snooping about company property and detained them for questioning after a short confrontation”. “Scouts usually means a big caravan of theirs or something” Felix pondered, “Exactly, good to see you actually paying attention to descended workforce briefings for once” Cruz nodded “From what the team leader has radioed back these scouts are most likely from the rabble’s own ‘army’ as they call themselves so we may be expecting trouble”. At this Felix swallowed slightly, they may be nomads and not exactly a disciplined military force compared to the rebellious descended PDF but a determined and large force would sweep them aside in a couple of minutes at most he knew even if they were at full strength, two details of security personnel weren’t going to stop that. “Any chance of getting some back up from the main reclamation force ma’am?” Felix asked hesitantly “Not likely, but I’m sending it up the chain to senior management” Cruz responded. At this Felix realised the even worse temper the desk sergeant was known for wasn’t what was showing right now, it was genuine fear that they were about to be very much overrun and there wasn’t anything they could do to stop it... Military Campaign Progress Wisdom has always been a hard won prize throughout humanities long walk through time, each step brought with another pain from another source but ultimately teaching another lesson that would forever mark the collective human psyche with its passing. The first humans would learn the wisdom of keeping close to their fires as it warded away the night and the creatures that lurked within, but at the same time the knowledge brought by those that would take this simple lesson and expand on it would see those same humans reach out into the night and lay claim to new lands shepherded by that wisdom of the light providing a refuge amongst the dark. These series of trials would often as not come by simple actions or from era spanning conflicts that would see advance at the cost of lives, the wisdom gained through these bloody endeavours laying the path forward with an almost sacred respect for how it was learnt. Eventually and perhaps inevitably there would be slips as each new era passed by, humanity climbing and falling with each dip and rise but with each would always come with that knowledge learnt from the hard lessons that make that next step forward possible, the wisdom of the age helping to drive mankind forward onto the next advancement, birthing the next question or inquisitive mind that would in turn challenge that wisdom to bring forth their own and help to take humanity onward. By the time of the modern age this habit of learning through trial and error would give birth to sciences & arts that would compound humanities known intelligence as foundations to be built upon as it clawed itself free of its home and into the cold void beyond, the new wisdom's and old being carried with as it helped to once more question the established and guide mankind onwards down its own path. For the descendants of the company this ability to look at the past and future through the collective wisdom of their predecessors can often act like a mirror for their very own actions. Each major decision they take as a whole via the edicts of the board, or on the general level as individual departments is informed by the wisdom of those that have come before, all whilst working to the larger multi-generational plan that dictates the company in its descended form today. For the numerous and uncountable numbers that make up the suits this hard won wisdom makes itself known through their reputation as each department’s suits scheme away how best to manoeuvre the spiders web of internal politics to place them and their department ahead of their rivals, past lessons learnt on who to avoid, who to ally and who to watch out for helping their shrewd minds navigate this ever shifting mess. For the Lab coats this knowledge takes a more practical and literal form as the work carried out in the past helps to inform the work of today, each experiment or exploratory piece of work having been founded on the basis of results from those that came before, the collective knowledge learnt helping to solidify the wisdom yet to come. In both cases this predilection with the knowledge of the past helping to inform the decisions of tomorrow could be said to be the metaphor for the company as it currently stands, however for every outsider that laughs at this analogy there is one that is carefully reminded that for all the company’s odd reputation the simple fact and wisdom that comes with it is this, the ruins were theirs once and every step they take is a step towards achieving that goal once again. The first handful of days of the new season would pass by much the same as the end of the past had, what remained of the reclamators had found themselves settling back into their original barracks compound within the commercia as the army as a whole took stock of what equipment, personnel and supplies they had left whilst the rest of the commercia itself took stock of getting used to the army’s presence once more amongst them. This would see a steady if subdued flow of activity crisscrossing the alley ways and tunnels leading between the reclamators compound and the spire itself as the commercia departments busied themselves with resupplying the army and repairing whatever equipment had been left over. This initial flurry of activity would continue well into the midst of the second week of the month as the army personnel began to mix with the rest of the departmental staff living and working in the commercia. The security department would be kept busy as the sound of heavy boot steps on concrete would begin to become a regular occurrence as reclamators personnel descended into brawls with commercia guard details when the two clashed in off duty bars during the rest hours each evening. What sparked off the first handful of brawls no one was quite sure by the tenth the single defining factor of each fight was the blame for lack of supplies being chucked at each side by the other, the reclamators only just learning about the lack of food supply blaming the commercia guards for failing to cut their own rations to help supply the army in field, whilst on the reverse the guards blamed the army for taking up too much supply when the work staff in the commercia and spire needed it more with them currently having no other supply beyond the limited and overworked hydroponics bays. Settling the matter the following morning an edict from the board permanently separated the two worst shifts from one another , with the reclamators worst offenders fined and confined to their compound whilst the worst commercia guards where split up onto different shift teams and sent on sewer check patrols. This had an immediate effect by the end of the sixth day of the second week as the rest of the army learnt of everything that had been going on whilst they had been away, it would take a few more days to get round but the news about the ’network’, the rounds of suspicion and the strange finds by casual patrols caused more than a few raised eyebrows and cautious glances. It wouldn't be the last time some departmental staff got ideas above their station some would say, though the news on the food front and the goings on in the agricultural dome did make a few ponder when the next would likely as not occur with the usual results. The one ray of light in the mire of the dark mood that seemed to hang around was the fact that the company had put round a new bulletin during the following week with the latest reclamation projects and the army had at least brought a new high water mark as were had put a full 10 percent of the colonial ruins back into company hands, the largest continuous amount to date for generations. By the fifth day of the third week this news would help to at least for the time being settle some of the still more agitated members of the wider company departments as the company as a whole was given a day off to mark the event. The final week of the month would pass by to the sound of several regrettable drinking decisions amongst some of the company personnel as the after effects of many a staff party could be heard for days after as the general background level of moaning dipped and then rose with repeated complaints about never drinking again jumping from mouth to mouth. All in all as the final days of the month cycled past the company as a whole sat in an odd mood most would notice, stress from the lack of food was forcing cracks open but at the same time the achievements of the reclamators was pulling others back together just as surely. Some would wonder and guess this was likely as not the point of the Board’s new bulletin that had been circulated, the leaders of the company displaying their political wisdom as per usual as they held the company together through what they would likely see as nought but choppy waters. The first handful of days of the second month would follow this trend as these cracks would continue to slowly pull open only to be pulled closed once more in a thousand different ways across hundreds of different conversations or confrontations as the temporary party mood slid away until come the sixth day of the week it had full dissipated all together. The odd mood that had been swinging from department to department would also in its own way twist once again leaving the company as a whole almost back where it had been before hand though some would find themselves refreshed by the short break others would find themselves more concentrated on their task at hand or on a larger goal, some would simply wonder if that had been the true reason behind the boards edict as they looked into the deeper meaning behind it as personnel often did with anything the board sent down. Others simply came to the conclusion that the point was just as it had been and spending more days trying to figure it out would only exacerbate people’s headaches on the issue as the days rolled onwards. During all this however come the midst of the following week a messenger would arrive at the commercia from one of the compounds established in reclaimed territory to the north. Arriving in the late eve one cycle the messenger from the territories assigned reclamation staff would scurry through screening and disappear into the crowds in the commercia before being picked up again passing into the spire and heading up the floors until they passed by the last major check point before reaching the board’s level. The next day or two would see rumours flitting around the spire itself as intrigued parties gossiped and spun tales of their own about the possibilities of such a low rank messenger being dispatched to potentially the board itself. T he answer as per usual for the company wouldn’t come from the board itself but would seep down via second hand observers or guards from the security department talking with lower counter parts across the entire company structure. By the fourth day of the second week the answer to the query on so many lips had circulated enough that it would start to become common knowledge, from what could be overheard or gleaned from the exhausted messenger one of the security perimeter patrols had encountered a band of descended civilians snooping about company territory due west of the compound they were assigned too. Accordingly they had been arrested for trespassing after a minor scuffle and dragged back to the compound for interview and fining, what had come out in their interview was the fact that they were ’scouts’ as they called themselves for something called the ‘Last Voice’. Clearly these ‘rioters’ as the security department labelled them were some form of armed militia answering to the nomadic civilians encountered throughout the ruins over the decades, but found particularly in the north west of the greater colonial ruins. What exactly there intentions were wasn't clear but the more militaristically minded security members that would talk about it guessed some form of military action was coming in some way from the size of this armed militia that the scouts had stated when pressed on the issue. Evidently after this the scouts had been fined and booted from the territory by armed escort with the standard company warning not to return unless they wanted to be shot for trespassing on company property and had disappeared off. Normally this sort of thing wouldn’t raise an eyebrow amongst company personnel but other details would come to light as a few more inquisitive members began to poke contacts to fill in gaps to the interesting gossiping skipping about the place. These finals pieces would find their way into ears come the second day of the third week as it was confirmed that the compound in question had been having its staffing numbers slowly reduced over the previous seasons due to the ongoing rationing issues. All this meant that there was only a couple of security details in the compound alongside a handful of staff from the reconstruction department, mainly labourers and steel smiths working on repairing the nearby infrastructure with their limited resources. The common consensus was military wise the compound couldn’t hold on its own but most were unsure If the reclamators force in its current state would last more than a season in a straight up fight if the security department pushed for a military reaction. If a food source was secured by someway then maybe an emergency reinforcement could be bolted onto the reclamators on route to the compound some reckoned but even they were unsure as the new questions and queries began to flit amongst the company personnel over the remainder of the week. The final week of the second month would mainly see the slivers of downtime each shift had split between running debates on what staff reckon would happen in the coming months to the compound and whether the board would put up a fight for the sake of reputation or pull back to save resources and come back alter when the descended civilian rioters weren’t paying attention. The various possibilities that could be conceived as answers to these quandaries would see the combined departments of the company into the final month of the season with little notice as the first week marched by to little avail as the debates raged on in the background. In some cases the only true outcome to all this scheming and talking was a set of betting rings springing up by enterprising suits with an ear to the ground, odds passing between departments as ‘middle men’ as they used to be called handled the collective rings of gamblers and set the odds by which they bet. IN several cases even the supposed higher up departmental managers weren’t above such actions as a few began to play even higher stakes games amongst themselves over the potential outcome, deals behind closed doors already beginning to form as different departments with the same ideas in mind for a potential result shifting into the ever fluid alliances and rivalries that sprung up across the company so regularly. The next couple of weeks would see this flurry of background activity only increase as eventually every department began to take notice and attempt to seize a cut off the preparations as some realised the potential rewards if they guess right and managed to position themselves correctly to support said action. For the board itself little was heard as the usually reclusive individuals that formed the leadership of the company kept their own cards close to their chest on the matter, but from what small bits slipped through the cracks a number of departments would shift their stance accordingly as each tried to grab a hold of the small morsel of information whilst barging opponents out of the way at the same time. Eventually when something did come down that would set a concrete platform for a response it left a few sly grins on some faces and flashes of frustration on others. During the morning briefing of the third day of the final week of the season the board would make its voice heard on the issue, every department tuning in to the company radio comms station to listen as the board made their edict speech, they had been listening themselves to the background and had made their decision on the matter, thanks to their unique positioning the departments entrusted with the company actions in the agri-cultural dome were uniquely placed to ascertain the likelihood of military action and property damage by the descended civilians and their rioter militia and as such if they believed the threat to company life was real to respond accordingly. In multiple backrooms at this betting rings would cash out across the departments as the board levelled their usual ability to decree an action and place themselves out of the blast radius if it feel through at the same time, but all the while being within arms reach to have a hand on the glory. Summary: With the continuing situation in regards to the ongoing ration and food issue affecting the company the Reclamators army has withdrawn fully into the company home territory, where it is managing to hold it numbers stable so long as it remains there. Across the company the food shortage is beginning to cause problems and issues on a larger scale whilst the board has attempted to clamp down upon. On top of this scouts from the lost have been detected poking around the most northern reclamated company territory and as such the company board has directed the departments of the agri-cultural dome to investigate a solution. (NOTE: The Reclamators currently stands at 1500/3000 strength, it will remain at this strength if it remains in its home capital territory but should it move from here without a secured food supply it will begin to deteriorate once more from starvation.) Unexpected Mergers It can often be said that whilst the other cultures of the ruins view their survival as one of light versus dark, good versus evil, the company simply see things as a business would after recovering from a near total collapse as it tries to rebuild its brand of sorts. Accordingly every circumstance or happening is viewed from the stance by the majority of company personnel across the various departments with victories being broadcast as acquisitions after hostile negotiations, whilst failures are brushed away as slumps in the market by those same people. As such everything always feeds into the wider generation goal of full reclamation so when a genuine step is taken towards this it raises a few eyebrows across the company, even more so when this step is threatened to be pushed back by outside interference beyond the expected norm. ‘Unexpected sell off’ or ’hostile mergers’ are rare terms to hear but the current situation with the northern most company territory has brought these terms back out into the open amongst the managerial types and even a few whisper amongst the board themselves. As such over the course of the months and weeks everyone has an eye on the edict broadcasts when they wash over the radio systems amongst the commercia and throughout the tower. Discussing the issue between them the board broadcasts several small but reassuring messages whilst also directing some departments into operatory stances as others watch with curiosity towards the action. Those with connections in the right place however manage to clear through this static meant for the lower staff to hear the true message as the crumbs of information fall into their lap after a few short conversations and favours. The board has spent the last few days discussing the ongoing situation in regards to the two most pressing matters, namely the food shortages affecting everyone and the territorial reclamation progression threat. Numerous arguments for and against particular actions or directions of solution has crossed between the five broad members until a consensus of sorts had been settled upon apparently, a few days later these decisions would pass quietly down into the laps of certain departments to be carried out as the board put their agreed solution into practice. Summary: 1) With the ongoing food shortage only likely to get worse the board has issued an edict to the departments assigned to the agri-culture dome reclamation team to obtain a supply node by whatever means they deem fit and will be dispatching an assessor to discuss the situation with the departmental staff present during the course of the Friday evening. 2) The discovery of scouts from the lost moving into the northern most reclaimed territory has caught the boards attention in a major way as the perceived potential threat to the overall ruins reclamation plan has been deemed problematic to say the least. With the Reclamators army in a poor state without a new food supply and the defensive security detachment barely 20 strong in the territory itself, the board has directed the agri-cultural departments to determine a solution as their proximity to a delegation of lost within the dome makes negotiations far easier to conduct should they be necessary. Back To Downtimes